Portland & Stuff

The first week of November was spent in Portland, OR at a PA Educators conference. The conference was literally one of the best educational sessions I've ever attended. I went a few days early to attend a Basic Skills Workshop for new faculty members, which focused on teaching skills like developing a syllabus, writing learning objectives, crafting test questions, and the in's & out's of academic life. There really is a science behind this stuff, and they are skills to be practiced and honed! Writing test questions isn't easy! Once the actual conference started, there were many sessions focusing on Clinical Coordinators, and I came home invigorated and filled with new ideas!

I took the computer video camera, and was able to Skype with Keith & Emerson while I was away. Emerson took a look at me on the computer monitor, and promptly asked me "Mommy...where's your feet?". She was very concerned, and insisted I show her they were still attached to me. She and Keith did great the week I was gone! They were definitely ready to have Mommy home by Saturday though, and I was surely ready to be home!

Some of the faculty members went out for dinner each night while in Portland...I had the pleasure of sushi, Greek, Moraccan, Chinese, Indian, and delish regional food! I'd never had Moraccan, and it was quite an experience. There was even a belly dancer! She was actually really great, and our waitress told us she won all the regional dancing contests. She gave me a dancing tutorial while my dinner buddies shot video and snapped pics. Oh lord...that's gonna come back to haunt me at some point!

Work is getting very busy. We've entered into the Admissions season, and had our first batch of interviews last week. It's quite a process, but really neat to see how this all transpires behind the scenes. I'm doing more teaching of small groups, and was asked to be a Physical Diagnosis instructor next year. That's the class where students learn how to do physical exams. They practice on each other during the first semester, and in the second semester go over to the hospital and see real patients.

Emmy and I did a free trial class at The Little Gym in Durham on Saturday. It was a tumbling class mixed with creative movement & music. The Saturday class is a little packed, but Em loved it! The class was 60 minutes in length, and she was so tired afterward that she could barely walk to the car. I thought she'd fall asleep right on the sidewalk! She took a 3+ hour nap that afternoon! I got so much housecleaning done while she slept...it was amazing!

Our home improvements are dragging on...hopefully this will be the final week. We had a 2-3 week delay due to waiting for stair parts to come in. Sigh. It will be worth it in the end, but this Fall has been a real mess.

This past Thursday, I walked outside to leave for work and found a tree on my car! Yep! Another tree! Couldn't believe our rotten luck. Much less damage than was done to Keith's car last month, but still...what are the odds?? We're hiring an arborist to come check out our trees, and will take down the ones that are dead or dying. We have such dense trees around our house, it's really hard to tell what's healthy or not. Ugh...this has turned into a really expensive Fall!